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Jakey is tired. He’s so unbelievably tired, and everyone is pissing him off. His throat feels like he’s swallowed sandpaper, his head is banging, and he’s been trying to fight back the urge to throw up ever since he opened his eyes this morning.
The same urge he is fighting right now, actually. From where he’s curled up in the bathtub he tries to focus on anything other than his rolling stomach, tries to distract himself, he can feel the bass of the music downstairs vibrating through the house and making his head pulsate with even more mind numbing pain, can hear the yelling and cheering and singing of his rowdy friends downstairs.
If he tries really hard, he can pick out the voices of his boys around the house, so intune to the sound of the lads that they reach Jakey’s ears on a different frequency to the other people invading his home at the moment.
Tays is on the microphone in the living room, screaming the wrong lyrics to a song that sounds vaguely familiar but Jakey can’t be arsed to place, Chazza is probably there with him, he thinks, every now and again his voice bounces through the house amplified like someone’s put the mic to his mouth - at least he’s singing the right lyrics. He can hear Ginge holding court in the main hall, always the comedian, probably to a crowd of twenty who hang off his every word like it’s gold dripping from his tongue, as they should, Jakey thinks vaguely, he is their king, after all.
And he can hear Beano. Beautiful, hilarious, bright Beano who’s been a shining star all night, bouncing off everyone in attendance, charming the masses with his boyish charm and quick wit. Beano who has been pulling Jakey onto the makeshift dance floor, holding him close and laughing at his flustered state, spinning him and doing his best to keep Jakey's mood up. Beano, who followed him from room to room, chased him down when he snuck away to his bedroom earlier in the night, pulling him back into the mess of people and music and bright lights.
Beano, who is currently yelling his name, has been for the last ten minutes as he dips in and out of rooms on the hunt for Jakey. It makes him curl up tighter in the large tub, whining weakly - it’s strange, having the urge to hide from Heinz. It’s normally Jakey who is actively looking for the other boy, desperate to bask in his warmth and laughter, his natural light that makes the homesickness fade from Jakey, makes him feel lighter, happier, more himself.
He can hear his boy on the stairs now, running up them easily, calling out Jakey's name loudly. He knows the first place Beano will check is his bedroom, but he’s got a weak spark of hope in his chest that the empty room and closed bathroom doors will fool him, that he’ll stop his manhunt and leave Jakey here to die in his bathroom curled up in his bath like the little worm he fucking is.
He holds his breath when he hears his bedroom door swing open, Beano’s call of his name echoing around the empty room, hears his footsteps as he walks deeper into the space with a huff, obviously frustrated at Jakey hiding from him.
What he can’t hear is the usual flow of words falling from Beano’s mouth when he’s streaming which must mean he’s ended it at some point since Jakey last slipped from his grabby hands around half an hour ago. Or so Jakey hopes, it’s bad enough if Beano finds him in this pathetic state but the worst case scenario is if he and 3 thousand of his followers find him, and he’s forced to play up to the camera.
Jakey jumps about a foot in the air when there’s a knock on the bathroom door, the sound echoing around the space. “Jake, are you taking a shit in there?” Heinz's voice is smooth in his ears, like a cool balm to his aching body. Jakey stays silent, squeezing his eyes shut and freezing any movement. “Jakey, c’mon— I’ve checked everywhere else, I know you’re in there” Heinz continues, his tone is soft, so soft in fact that if these were any other circumstances it would have made Jakey go boneless, instead he tenses up even further.
“What if he’s gone back to his parents house?” another voice chimes in. Corey.
Motherfucker— it’s like a mothers meeting, Jakey bites back a groan, willing them to go away and leave him here to rot. Maybe he fucking should have just driven home, save him this hassle but he knows he’s in no state to be in any kind of moving vehicle.
“His cars outside—“ comes Heinz's frustrated voice, Jakey can picture him in his mind on the other side of the door so easily, firing back at Corey with that stupid pout on his face, adorable little furrow between his eyebrows. Jakey adores him.
“Maybe he got an Uber?” Corey suggests and Jakey loves him too, hopes he’ll push this suggestion so they’ll give up and go back to enjoying themselves again.
Beano knows him too well, though, because his next words are laced with snark, accent curling around the letters heavier like it always does when he’s getting fired up. “A Uber— He didn’t get a fucking Uber, he would have told me, you idiot”
“Fucking hell, alright. Just trying to help” Corey says, Jakey can picture him rolling his eyes, hands held up palm forward as if trying to defuse the situation. “Have you tried calling him?”
The question cuts off Beanos low grumbling of slurred words that sound vaguely like ‘fucking uber’ and ‘fucking hell’ and ‘fuck you Corey’, the silence is deafening for a moment and Jakey’s confused, trying to parse through the pulsing in his head to work out what happened. When it clicks in his head, finally, he’s a few seconds late because—
A piercing shrill echoes through the room, bouncing off all four tiled walls and making Jakey whine in pain as it ricochets through his head. He fumbles for his pocket, grabbing at this phone weakly a couple of times before he can finally pull it from the fabric of his shorts. The screen flashes Beano’s contact name and he messily presses the red button to cut the ringing.
The few seconds of silence that follows is near blissful, Jakey breathes out shakily. The reprieve doesn’t last for long, the folding doors of the bathroom are pulled open harshly, light flooding his safe cocoon of darkness and Beano basically falls through the door, ranting and as loud as always. Jakey grumbles in annoyance.
“What are you doing fucking ignoring me? What the fuck—“ He’s grumbling, head whipping around the room trying to find Jakey. Maybe if he stays still enough Beano won’t see him crumpled in the bath. Yes, Jakey thinks, Beano is a bit like a T-Rex, there’s no way he'll spot him here—
“What the fuck are you doing in the bath, you madhead?”
Nevermind, then. Jakey huffs and pulls his arms away from where he’d wrapped them around his head in an attempt to block out the light and the noise. He makes a valiant attempt to open his eyes but when he cracks them open, the light pierces through his head and brings a rush of nausea so strong it makes his head spin. He whines in pain.
“Oh shit—!” Beano curses, there’s a ruffle of fabric and a bang as he leans down by the bath, a big cool hand running over Jakey’s forehead and hair gently. He can only sigh shakily as the waves of nausea ebb and flow through him. “Are you not feeling well?”
“Oh mate, you look like shit” Corey. Twat.
“He’s been poorly all day, shit. Go get a couple of bottles of water from downstairs, will you?” There’s a scuffle of feet on tile leaving the room and then the hand comes back to smooth over his forehead and hair again before pulling away completely. “Give me a minute, Jake, you do not look comfortable, mate.”
Jakey must black out or something because the next thing he knows is a soft weight being dropped on his prone, pathetic body and he huffs. With his eyes closed and head spinning he can’t quite parse out what the weight is, not until that big cool hand slides under the back of his head, pulling it up gently from the cold porcelain of the bath and sliding a pillow underneath it ever so gently.
The smell of Beano surrounds him completely and he realises that the soft, cool weight on him is Beano’s duvet from his bed. He curls up further into the blanket with a whine, pulling it right up to his nose and mindlessly rubbing his cheek on the soft pillow underneath his head.
He hears Heinz snicker quietly and there’s a ruffle of fabric and Jakey is too out of it to figure out what he’s doing until there’s a hand on his shoulder lightly pushing him toward the back wall of the bath. He grumbles, ignoring the shoving until Heinz speaks “budge up, idiot, come on”
Jakey whines, petulant but forces his body to roll over slightly and in a loud mess of limbs, Beano falls into the tub behind him. They both moan in pain, Jakey annoyed and Beano shaky like he’s holding in a laugh. “Sorry, sorry, Jake” he giggles, shifting behind to get comfortable on his side.
“You’re such a dick” Jakey slurs into the pillow, holding very still as the twat behind him squirms around like a worm, situating his long limbs into the space. Maybe he and Heinz can be worms together, Jakey smiles into the pillow.
“Oh, there he is. I was missing that pretty voice” Heinz coos, and his arm slides around Jakey’s waist under the duvet, squeezing comfortably. “C’mere” He tugs Jakey back, spooning him close, and lays the side of his face on Jakey’s, gently rubbing his nose on his cheekbone.
Beano is warm. He’s so unbelievably warm, and he’s touching Jakey so softly and speaking so gently and Jakey loves him so fucking much. It’s like he’s a balm to all of Jakey’s ailments, making his tensed muscles relax, his jaw unclench, his head feel less like his brain is about to explode. He can feel himself go completely boneless against the boy behind him, and the arm around his waist tightens slightly.
“What’re you doing lying here in the bath in the dark, weirdo?” Heinz coos into the skin of his rosy cheek, lips pressed there like a continuous kiss.
He loves it when Beano gets a bit tipsy like this. Get a buzzball down him and he’s all over Jakey, bestowing on him his affections and touch without the usual bravado and lighthearted attitude he uses for the camera. Instead he gets sincere and intimate, grabbing at Jakey with roaming hands and saying whatever dirty thoughts are on his mind. It does wonders for Jakey’s ego, honesty.
There’s a fine line between joking and serious when it comes to Heinz. And unfortunately for Jakey, Heinz uses that line like a fucking skipping rope.
It’s not like Jakey can talk though. Heinz still thinks he’s with Ellie and he’s done nothing to dispute that, the way his eye twitches when her name is brought up is enough to keep Jakey going for days.
“Crawled in here to die quietly” he responds, tilting his head slightly into Beano’s mouth which spurs him into kissing him properly, peppering them up and down the side of his face.
“Oi— Don’t say that, you’ll break m’heart.” He snickers, the kisses he’s peppering are getting closer and closer to Jakey’s mouth and he tilts his head back more to give Beano better access. It works, he’s rewarded with a soft smooch, and then a second and a third, and even a forth. He’s gunning for a fifth, and can feel Beano smile against his mouth when someone clears their throat from the doorway.
Jakey cracks his eyes open and tilts his head to be able to look at the door, following Beano’s line of sight to Corey standing there with two bottles of water in one hand and a foil pill packet in the other with pursed lips. Out of the corner of his eye, Jakey can see Beano’s lips curl up in a smirk.
“I’m not even going to— whatever, I didn't see anything” Corey rolls his eyes, crossing the room and dropping the bottles on Beano’s chest. “I stole some codeine from Ginge’s room too, think it’s left over from when he hurt his leg. Should help if it’s a migraine or whatever”
“Thanks, mate” Beano hums, using the hand not under Jakey to crack the lid off the bottle. Jakey just smiles up at Corey weakly and he smiles back. “Will you close the doors when you go?”
“Feel better soon, Jake. I’ll see you in the morning” Corey pats him on the shoulder and leaves the room, closing the folding doors behind him, blocking the light and majority of the noise from the party.
He sighs blissfully, and Heinz turns back to him with the opened bottle in his hand and Jakey takes it happily, the cold water soothing his grated throat and dry mouth blissfully. He opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out a little when Beano flashes him the tiny red pill. Beano smirks and wiggles his eyebrows, placing the pill on his tongue and waiting for him to wash it down with a swig of water before pressing a kiss to Jakey's mouth.
“Just relax, yeah? Should kick in soon and you can get some sleep” He speaks softly, kissing him again. He nods, and turns back over, nuzzling into the pillow. He lets Beano fuss for a few moments, pulling the duvet back up to their chins and getting them back into the comfortable position from before.
It takes a while but eventually he dozes off, the codeine and Beano’s arm holding him close helping to ease the pain. He knows he’s going to wake up feeling awful tomorrow, body achy from the harsh porcelain and whatever bug he’s picked up but right now, wrapped up and warm with his boy, he's never felt better.
—
Bonus scene
Tays sighs heavily as he slams the door after the last few stragglers finally leave. It was a fucking good party, a fucking great party, even. Everyone had a great time, music was good, vibes were insane and it was all for him and his new shiny one million followers on TikTok. What a fucking trip.
He turns back to the main hall, where the remaining lads are standing. Chazza swaying back and forth, phone in one hand as he messily scrolls TikTok for stream clips of tonight and the other hand pressing heavy on the table to keep him upright. Ginge stands with his hands on his hips as he turns in a circle, looking over the state of the house with pursed lips.
“This is going to be a nightmare to clean for you lot” He says with a flat face and Tays rolls his eyes, smile curling at his lips.
“For us, y’mean?”
“No, mate. This was your party, i’m not cleaning shit”
“Wasn’t it you who smashed that glass in the kitchen, dickhead?”
“You have zero proof of that”
“Do not fucking start with me, you ginger tw—“
“Guys, where the fuck are Jakey and Beano?” Chazza cuts in, finally looking up from his phone and looking around the room like he’s just gained the sense of sight back.
It makes Tays pause, he hasn’t seen those two in fucking hours. He’s got a vague memory of Corey coming over whilst he was doing karaoke and mentioning Jakey being poorly but at the time he was too focused on butchering the lyrics to Champagne Supernova to give a fuck about much else. The night turns into a bit of a blur from there.
“Probably fucked off to bed, the cheeky bastards” Ginge rolls his eyes, dropping his hands and moving toward the staircase. “Probably got the right idea, to be honest, we can sort the house tomorrow”
Tays is quick to follow him up the first set of stairs, eager to shaft the cleaning off until he feels like a human being again. Chazza bounds up behind him slowly.
Once they reach the first floor landing, Ginge is quick to scoot off to his side of the floor, falling into his bedroom with a groan. “I forgot about the fucking leak-! Tays, I'm in with you tonight”
Tays snorts and nods, grabbing at the banister lazily and bracing himself to climb the second flight of stairs when Chazza speaks.
“Just stay in Beano’s room, mate, it’s empty.”
“What-?” Tays blinks, letting go of the stairs to tilt his body around them and low and behold, there’s beano’s room, door wide open and completely empty, duvet stripped from the bed. He gapes at the sight as Ginge comes up behind him to peer in too.
“What the fuck?” Ginge mumbles, darting in the room to do a lap, going around the partition wall to check the bathroom. “He’s not passed out on the bathroom floor again, at least”
“He better not be in my room, fuck sake” Chazza whines, throwing his head back but Tays is barely paying attention, he’s watching Ginge as he slowly makes his way to stand in Beano’s door way with a frown. His head slowly turns to look at Jakey’s door, inches from Beano’s on the wall next to it. It’s closed.
“You think he’s in with Jake?” Tays mumbles, and Ginge reaches out to push the door open silently. Tays watches his face cycle through 9 different emotions before landing on a cross between horrified and amused, it makes Tays snort and he walks to join Ginge down the landing and peers into the open doorway.
He’s not entirely sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t Corey and Cameraman Chaz spread out top and tail in Jakey’s bed, messing up his cringe 67 sheets and snoring loudly, shoes on and everything. It shocks a laugh out of Tays, he slaps a hand to his mouth to muffle it. He can hear Chazza come up behind him and snap a picture of them with his phone, giggling.
“Where the fuck are those two then?” Chazza says between snickers, camera snap going off again. Tays, still giggling, moves deeper into the room, checking down the side of the bed furthest from the door for their missing boys. He shrugs at the lads in the doorway. “Bathroom?” Chazza shrugs back.
He rolls his eyes but tugs on the handles for the folding doors, and peers in.
He doesn’t see anything at first, the bathroom seemingly empty, it isn’t until he turns his head to the left that in the darkness he catches sight of something in the bath. He leans further into the room and squints, hand fumbling for the light switch on the wall. The light clicks on and low and behold, there they are - Jakey and Beano, spooning, in the bath. Tays blinks, mouth dropping open but curling up at the edges.
“What? Are they in there?” Ginge crossed the room fast, stepping into the bathroom and stopping at the sight of the boys just like he did. “Oh, what the fuck”
“Awwwww— look at them” Tays coos, fumbling for his phone. Chazza beats him to it, rushing up behind him and spamming the camera button over and over, wheezing as he tilts his phone for multiple angles.
“They look so cute” Chazza giggles.
“Oh my god, I fucking knew they were cracking” Tays laughs.
“What the actual fuck” Ginge repeats.
The noise makes Jakey whine, shuffling in his sleep. They all freeze, holding their breath as his eyelids flutter.
The movement must alert Beano, even being flat out, he tugs Jakey closer and they both relax again, slipping back into sleep easily and unaware they’ve been caught.
Tays blindly grabs at Chazza’s sleeve, and tugs on it harshly, pulling them both from the room and into the doorway with Ginge again. The three of them just stand there for a second, watching the two sleep curled into each other.
Ginge swallows thickly, and reaches over to turn the light off again. “We never saw anything, yeah?” he says quietly. Tays nods, chewing on his lip. He can see Chaz do the same from the corner of his eye.
The three of them move silently after that, tugging the doors closed again and leaving jakey’s room. Ginge pauses and then pulls Heinz’s door closed too, following Tays up to his room.
Exhausted from dancing and well past tipsy, they all find sleep easy that night despite the discovery.
Tays knows it’s more complicated than they’d like it to be, with girlfriends and work and them being two blokes in the UK content space but he smiles at them like nothing is amiss in the morning. When he notices Corey avoiding both their eyes too, he ignores it.
It’s well and truly none of his business.